The British Rule - Was it a boon? India's Independence - Was it a mistake? PART - II

British Rule... Was it a boon? Would India have been developed by now if the British had remained in the country? Did our freedom fighters do a great mistake by sacrificing for a freedom that was not really as beautiful as they thought it would be?

These are a few facts, I think, that need to be made clear for this discussion:

During the British Raj, India experienced some of the worst famines ever recorded, including the Great Famine of 1876–78, in which 6.1 million to 10.3 million people died and the Indian famine of 1899–1900, in which 1.25 to 10 million people died. Recent research, including work by Mike Davis and Amartya Sen, attribute most of the effects of these famines to British policy in India.

According to current findings the India-China region produced around 73 per cent of the industrial manufactures of the world around 1750.

According to Indian historian Rajat Kanta Ray, India's share of global income slipped from 22.6% in 1700, nearly equal to that of Europe's of 23.4%, to 3.8% by the time of Indian independence. In 1780, the issue was raised by conservative British politician Edmund Burke who vehemently attacked the East India Company, claiming that Warren Hastings and other top officials had ruined the Indian economy and society.

Instead of the Indian nationalist account of the British as alien aggressors, seizing power by brute force and impoverishing all of India, Marshall presents the interpretation, supported by many scholars in India and the West, in which the British were not in full control but instead were players in what was primarily an Indian play and in which their rise to power depended upon excellent cooperation with Indian elites.

No matter how much today’s people complain and moan that India was better under the British rule, they are just being…. In the politest sense of the term… ignorant. Ignorant of all the complex, melancholy, heart-breaking histories of this great country that once was the land of greatly advanced mathematics and science, the land of all the glories a nation could possibly possess and “the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the world combined.” [In the words of Mark Twain]

The British rule escalated India’s woes and everything was crippled – the industries, the health sector, the educational sector, the living standards and even the deep sense of nationalism and pride in every brave Indian heart. We were reduced to the levels of a corrupt, morally deficit, poverty-stricken, illiterate, defenseless and senseless society by the time we got independence. But it wasn’t entirely the Britishers’ fault. Our history books were right when they talked about the intent of the British Raj and the East India Company. But when it came to the intent of the people of India, they [intentionally, perhaps] forgot to emphasize on how big a role that played in the destruction of the society.

When the Mughal Dynasty broke up, many small princely states were formed and the rulers were all greedy, selfish '*#^(&%^#'s who didn't really think much before collaborating with the foreign invaders. When the sultans from the west invaded the country, it was a different scenario. The rulers had their pride and patriotism. They didn't have any unity among themselves and that's why they fell, causing India's greatest treasures to be looted by the Turkish invaders. But during the British colonization, the rulers had neither unity nor moral responsibility to the people. And when people like that become rulers, it can only mean that the society had fallen into a ditch... Meaning, the citizens of the country neither knew nor cared about what happened to the society at large.

The 3 Greatest Lies Ever Told

And so, the decline began. For 200 painful years, India suffered from the ills cancer that had been inflicted on her by a foreign nation, with the help of her own people. Then, India became independent. Everyone rejoiced thinking this was the turning point and that India will get back to its old, glorious form in no time. But 64 years have passed and people are still suffering... from poverty, disease, corruption, illiteracy and ignorance. Here, we must NEVER FORGET the fact that INDIA HAS IMPROVED. And India will continue to improve, just not fast enough. India will stagnate without changes in the political, economic and social reforms and if corruption and population grow at the present rate, the already despairing people will lose all hope in democracy and there will soon be worse disasters like dictatorship or something even worse than that.

So it must be clear to anyone who has patiently read this that we need two thing in our country right now - HOPE and CHANGE. [It sounds awfully like US President Obama's campaign, but I swear my conclusions haven't in the least been influenced by that] And unless both of these things develop in the hearts of the people, they won't be able to develop in the country... Because of a simple logic most of us refuse to accept: The country is nothing but the people and every nation is only as great as its citizens are.

I'm positive I'm trying to be the change I want to see in my country [I'll write about how I've changed or trying to change in another post someday]. Frankly speaking, I don't care for an India that is a superpower or one which all nations fear. Nor do I want an India like any other country [US, UAE, UK, etc.] in the future. I'm a simple town girl who dreams of a country that is happy, beautiful and free. And I am hopeful... What about you? :)

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.